I feel weary of seeing article after article about sexual abuse by priests. I want to scream, "Enough already!" But maybe not enough yet, because such abuse has also been perpetrated on women and nuns.
The Life - Has the church left young people? Do youth have enough adult leadership? Are we listening to their wisdom? Is the church truly home? Do they feel responsible and valued? Accompaniment … listening … building prayer and community …"walking the talk" … making them feel valued … changing our own hearts — these are some of the ideas sisters shared when asked about young people leaving the church.
Horizons - How do we, as a society, crawl and drag each other out to safety? How do we resist the numbing effect of the never-ending cycle of violence and negative news? How do we wake each other up and remember what really matters?
GSR Today - A caravan of asylum-seekers from Central America has shifted more attention to immigration at the southern U.S. border. GSR has compiled reports from sisters working at or near the border, which illustrate the challenges migrants face.
Notes from the Field - Spending so much time with these elderly sisters, I have come to truly see how they embody Salesian spirituality. One of the aspects of this spirituality is acknowledging God in even common daily tasks.
Women can take a place at the table, even when we're not invited or encouraged — and if we're shut out, we need to set up our own tables. We can take the microphone and speak, post the information and share it, open the door and walk in.
Mary Frohlich is a Religious of the Sacred Heart and a professor of spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. In addition to teaching, she writes for a variety of journals and is currently working on a book entitled Breathing into Wholeness: Catholicity and Life in the Spirit, due to be published by Orbis in 2019. Mary also leads workshops on Carmelite spirituality, spiritual companioning, spirituality as an academic discipline and ecospirituality.
Sr. Marie-Paule Willem, a Franciscan Missionary of Mary, who has been serving the poor in the U.S. and around the world for more than 60 years, will receive the 2018-2019 Lumen Christi Award from Catholic Extension.
Bishop Joseph Kopacz of Jackson read the edict to open the sainthood cause for Sr. Thea Bowman at Mass Nov. 18 at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in downtown Jackson. The church was packed with people who loved Bowman and can't wait to see her become a saint.
In northwestern Vietnam, ethnic minority groups live in extreme poverty. They lack health care and education, surviving on little food. But for the last decade, nuns from the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Hung Hoa have quietly built and served many Catholic communities in those provinces. One of the nuns, Sr. Maria Do Thi Quyen, spoke to GSR about their work.